It’s not too late to save the Postal Service

By Karen Hessen

The Forest Grove News-Times, Aug 26, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (14 Reader comments)

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My customers ask me, “Are you really going to five-day-a-week delivery?” My answer has to be, “Yes.”

Last month, postal employees were informed that the U.S. Postal Service would begin five-day-a-week delivery starting September 2010. Saturday delivery will be eliminated. Reducing the deliveries by one day per week eliminates one out of every six carrier positions, or 18 percent. It also reduces our fuel consumption for delivery by 18 percent. The July 30 article in The Oregonian on overhauling the Postal Service says it all: The post office will lose 7 billion dollars in this fiscal year.

The Department of Labor records 338,000 mail carrier positions. The loss of one out of six carrier positions reduces the workforce by 56,333. A letter carrier makes approximately $50,000 per year. The savings in salary are more than $2 billion per year. That figure nearly doubles when the benefits package is included.

Five-day delivery and an annual 2-cent increase in postage rates will not save the post office. Costs will continue to escalate. Mail volume will continue to fall.

In the early 1970s, the only time the letter carriers have gone on strike, the loss of mail delivery had a crippling impact on financial institutions and government agencies.

The letter carrier strike led to the privatization of the Postal Service and the right of postal employees to collective bargaining.

Mail carriers, in turn, agreed never to strike again. Loss of mail delivery services in today’s economic climate could have a devastating impact. It is a fact that electronic communication and transmissions have replaced much of the need for mail delivery, but many vital services are still performed by the Postal Service.

Along with privatization came the requirement that the Postal Service become self-supporting. The United States Postal Service receives no funding from the federal government. But the federal government retains oversight of postal operations.

The Postal Service will only continue to function if its products and services generate enough revenue to cover costs. To that end, the Postal Service needs to raise the price of postage to cover the actual cost of mail delivery, eliminating nonprofit discounts. Annually raising stamp prices 2 cents will not cover costs, but it will, once again, result in a reduction of mail volume. Simultaneously, the Postal Service needs to take steps to reduce the cost of delivery.

Management bonuses need to be eliminated. Postal employees, at all levels, are generously compensated. Management bonuses total millions of dollars each year. The most recent data on bonuses is from 2001. In that year, management bonuses were $128 million.

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